Acclaimed actor and producer Salma Hayek joins us for a conversation about her remarkable career on screen (including memorable roles in Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, Traffic, Across the Universe, and Frida) and behind the camera (as producer of Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet and the 2015 Festival selection Septembers of Shiraz), and her work as an advocate for women and children through UNICEF and Chime for Change.

In Conversation With... Salma Hayek

Runtime

90 min

Salma Hayek is an icon of female empowerment
and a multi-talented force in
entertainment. Moving nimbly between film
and television, both in her native Mexico
and in the United States, she has regularly
been called upon to embody beguiling
sensuality, yet she has also proven herself
one of the screen's most memorable portrayers
of feminine complexity and intelligence.
In no film was this more the case than Frida,
which she also produced. Her Frida Kahlo
was a fascinating swirl of passion and acumen,
narcissism and altruism. The film was
Hayek's dream project, and it garnered her
an Oscar nomination.

Hayek first became a star in Mexico as
the titular heroine of Teresa, a telenovela
about a woman of humble origins who uses
her beauty and intelligence to make it big. As
though following her character's example,
she promptly made it in Hollywood, landing
starring roles in Desperado, From Dusk Till
Dawn, 54, Dogma, and Once Upon a Time
in Mexico. She wasted no time in using her
acting success to form Ventanarosa, the
production company behind not just Frida
but also Arturo Ripstein's Gabriel García
Márquez adaptation No One Writes to the
Colonel, The Maldonado Miracle, which
Hayek directed, the hit series Ugly Betty,
and Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet, which premiered
at last year's Festival. More recently
she has worked with the legendary Robert
Towne (writer of Chinatown) on his film
Ask the Dust, Oliver Stone on Savages,
Matteo Garrone on Tale of Tales, and Wayne
Blair on Septembers of Shiraz, which is
screening at the Festival.

We are thrilled to have Hayek as our guest
for this very special onstage conversation
about her remarkable career.